Sounds like a slow ticking bomb that will eventually go BOOM and require surgery.

I hope not, but my past "niggles" that I could get through all eventually caught up with me and have put me on the IR often. It sucks...but welcome to life as we get older.

I wish you nothing but "easy going" and hopefully no "bad" injuries...but it doesn't look good for the long haul.

2 times meniscus surgery for me, but no real problem. On the bike (trainer) the next day and running after 2 weeks each time, and years ago with no issues since. If it gets to the surgery it usually is not much more than a small speed bump. Hope your experience turns out as well as mine did. I just wanted to brighten things a bit. Good luck!

I had a partial detachment of the medial meniscus horn about 12 years ago. I went to a guy that was the NY Jets orthopedic at one time. He told me I was too old to heal from a repair- surgery would end my running. He told me to go to a sports physical trainer for exercises that would strengthen the rest of the knee, take Aleve as necessary, and to suck it up when those two failed.

I have knee pain once in a while, and I don't run 50 mile a week any more, but I can still do what I enjoy.

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"...the street finds its own uses for things"

Sounds painful. Was this the result of an injury event or just years of wear and tear?

I thought about writing a post suggesting you don't ask for medical advice on the internet where you can't be sure that the people that respond are qualified, they don't know your history, they can't examine you, they can't order tests or review the scans you have, they can't outline your options face to face or offer you any treatment.

LOL. I was waiting for it :)
Just wanted to hear other people's input.

There was a fall about 4 years ago but it happened right before a Ultra Trail run and I just got a cortisone shot and soldier on. Pain has just been slowly getting worse over a period of time.

Trouble is other people might be sucked in by anecdotal stories. We're all adults though.

Had surgery on medial posterior horn - trimmed 50+% at age 58. No mcl problem. Thought I needed it on other knee 7 years later, but doc said it was more degenerative, pothole type. Year later got stem cell and PRP and both doing pretty, pretty good now, though the later gets slightly off track/groove occasionally. After stem had to wait 9 months before running again. Kept my run mileage low for couple of years now and will graduate from sprints to longer distance racing. Big believer in amazing aminos.

Ugh. Best of luck with it.

I have nothing to add on the knee, but as I age, I'm becoming more and more a fan of aggressive fixes that may mean time out in the short-term but have better long-term results.

Recently had an ankle injury and went for the walking boot and no activity for two weeks to be sure it would heal properly as opposed to hobbling around on it for weeks and trying to keep my fitness.

I am in the field of sports medicine as an athletic trainer. Torn meniscus are not that bad. I have athletes that finish there season just fine with them. It all depends though. Pain level, strength and ROM. But if you doctor says your good then go with it. You will need surgery at a point but a lot of people push it off till fall or winter as long as you are not having a lot of problems. Biking should be good and swimming. Runner might give you the biggest problem.

If it is a pain you can get the surgery and get back to sport pretty quick

OK, this is your scan but how are you feeling? How load tolerant are you? Do you have any mechanical issues with your knee: does it lock up or give out? How often? Can you run trails?

Scans are one thing. How the athlete is feeling is another. Sometimes they match up.

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Endurance coach | Physiotherapist (primary care) | Bikefitter | Swede

Torn my meniscus 3 times already (I'm only 27...), but I don't think any were on the posterior horn. I did go to a great orthopedist here in NY after my 3rd surgery last year because it was getting out of control. He looked at my joints, body, etc. as one unit instead of just focusing on my knee. Turns out I'm hyperflexible and had little to no stability in my hips, which was causing my knee to compensate. After 3ish months of PT (racing the whole time) I was back at it.

Basically what I'm trying to say is make sure they look at your whole kinetic-chain, not just your knee.

Anyway, meniscus aren't the end of the world and recovery is usually pretty quick. Good luck!

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Strava

I have a hack-saw in my garage - we can get it right off for you and fab up something in place if you want!

Should net you pretty quick recovery time I would think!

You didn't say what your issues were. Do you still function? Does your knee catch?

I had a weird knee pain, medial (inner) side, but more towards the front, near the top of the knee cap. It started after my last race in September 2014, and i got greedy and started too soon with high volume, etc. again. After several appointments and probably a year of chasing around the cause...I had an MRI. Same, tear on the posterior horn. Small tear. I went to see a couple more guys, and one of the Drs suggested to either wait and see or PRP. His comment was that a meniscus surgery is still pretty invasive, so if I could function it might be better to avoid it. I actually figured it was a saphenous nerve entrapmenr or some other nerve/muscle issue since I had what felt a big knot midway between my hip and knee where the sartorius crosses the quads.

I was not really training at the time, nor am I now 3+ years later. I call it exercise: run about 10-15 miles a week, bike a couple of hours, swim 2x, and lift 2-3x for probably 6 +/- hours total. I've worked on my psoas, adductors, TFL, sartorius, high hamstrings, and quads a bit using some of the mobility 'exercises' from Kelly Starrett. It's been awhile, but I'm probably 90% right now and it's only when the terrain is very sketchy that i usually feel something.

Point is, it's hard to know. The cyst maybe it needs some help? The meniscus...here's a summary of a test of sorts that is worth reading. And, one of our Chiro/ART practitioners mentioned it when I was considering what to do.

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmoa1305189


"CONCLUSIONS: In this trial involving patients without knee osteoarthritis but with symptoms of a degenerative medial meniscus tear, the outcomes after arthroscopic partial meniscectomy were no better than those after a sham surgical procedure."

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Brandon Marsh - Website | @BrandonMarshTX | RokaSports | 1stEndurance | ATC Bikeshop |

Having all the standard issues catching the occasional slip but 90% of the time the biggest complaint is just pain. Meniscus I'm not horribly worried about anxious what he has to say about the MCL tear more

MCL tears usually not a big problem. Heal on their own for the most part. I know a couple guys with Grade III tears that were out of commission for 8 weeks or so, then back to normal. Meniscus is more worrisome because of long term risk of accelerated osteoarthritis.

In most cases, an MCL tear will heal on its own, provided you take care of it -- wear a brace for risky activities and get scheduled for physical therapy. Your description sounds like a grade 2 and they are very unlikely to recommend surgery for that.

The meniscus - if you decide to have surgery to clean that up - is a pretty straightforward arthroscopic procedure. You'll have some downtime from running but you should be able to get back to cycling pretty quickly.

I had the same diagnosis for post horn meniscus tear and had surgery March 8th. Before the surgery the pain would wake me up some nights, that was resolved immediately. Doctor said he removed one third of it, started PT two weeks after surgery. Back on the bike about the same time, an additional two weeks for the pool and am now up to 30 minutes running every other day. Both the doctor and the physio told me recovery is highly individual. Hope to see you at Maryland, good luck.

Man, I feel sorry for you! Had my posterior meniscus horn damaged in a freaky soccer play 4 years ago, MCL was ok tks Good!

Had to do surgery to kind of clean the hole thing and fix it. Surgery was ok, but I had to do a lot of physiotherapy ( about 2 months ) and for a good year even after a simple 5k run it would swell considerably and ice afterwards was mandatory.

Four years latter if I run more than 20 miles a week it feels strange and uncomfortable. Strengthening is mandatory nowadays!

But good news, every time is about to have weather change you going to know at least 30 minutes earlier then everybody! Lol

Don't worry I'll be at Maryland the doctor knows that's not up for debate. The plan is to actually have it fixed post Maryland.